Why is this subject, “Roll Back the World,” important in the world?
October 10, which is just a week before my book launch, has been named World Mental Health Day by the World Health Organization (WHO). Their theme: “Mental health is a universal human right.” This right may seem obvious, but the fact is it’s honored in theory more than practice. As WHO explains, “All over the world, people with mental health conditions continue to experience a wide range of human rights violations. Many are excluded from community life and discriminated against, while many more cannot access the mental health care they need or can only access care that violates their human rights.”
What is the pressing issue, and how are you addressing it?
There’s been a lot in the news about homeless people and the fact that many of them have severe mental illnesses. People want a quick solution. Yes, we can create more hospital beds, but that’s not a long-term answer. Community outpatient treatment is a less restrictive way to help people struggling with schizophrenia and other forms of psychosis. Yet funds for these local services have been cut year after year, and the result is what we see now—a humanitarian and social problem that just gets worse and worse because there’s not enough access to these services.
Supportive housing sponsored by local agencies finds clients affordable places to live and brings services, including medication, to them. It also provides peer support, socialization, and coaching. Fountain House is a nationally recognized example; there are many more. These services are more humane and cost taxpayers much less than long-term institutionalization. Even after years of hospitalization and with severe disabilities, my sister was able to live the last years of her life in her own home and as part of a community. I hope that readers will be moved to support agencies that make endings like this possible.
Deborah Kasdan Biography
What is your background in this subject?
My parents saved every letter from all four of their children, plus cartons of documents and press clippings. I pored over correspondence, legal documents, and FBI files. It took me years, but I went through them all. I also obtained hospital records to gain a timeline of my sister Rachel’s journey in and out of hospitals, boarding houses, and homeless enclaves. I interviewed people who knew Rachel and gained valuable insights from them. I also attended conferences and workshops; I read books and articles by professionals, advocates, and family members. I took a course on mental health and the law and learned about advocacy underway to end coercive hospitalization and treatment. That resonated with me because I always wanted my sister to get the help she needed but still have her basic freedoms.
What is something that most people don’t know about you?
I recently read that Ginni Thomas, wife of the Supreme Court justice, was in a cult called Lifespring during the 1980s, and this experience led her to become an advocate of de-programming. For a few months in the ‘80s, I, too, participated in Lifespring (not that I ever met Ginni). Unlike her, I never felt the need for de-programming. I’m not easily indoctrinated—when my sister Rachel was about twelve years old, she went around hypnotizing people. I let her try with me, but I never allowed myself to go into a trance and respond to suggestions.
What are your passions outside of your career?
I retired after a 35-year career writing about business and technology for corporations. Now, I get to write for my own pleasure and do in-depth reading wherever my interests take me. That includes novels, memoirs, and online magazines. I can’t sit still too long, though. I need to stay active—swimming, yoga, and lots of walking. Most of all, I treasure my time hanging out with my husband, two daughters, and their families, which include, in no particular order, two dogs, a cat, and four grandchildren.
Are there any social causes that you believe in and support?
I believe all adults have a right to self-determination, whether they are women seeking reproductive rights or a person diagnosed with serious mental illness. Just as I support Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights, I endorse the National Alliance on Mental Illness, which advocates for legislation and programs that support families and individuals living with mental illness. I also support organizations like Mad in America, Mind Freedom International, and ISPS. They expose abuses in the psychiatric system and do research on psychological and social approaches to treatment and recovery. Recently, I joined a letter-writing campaign to end forced injections of potent psychotropics and other retaliatory measures against a ten-year inmate of a forensic hospital. She never had a trial for her alleged crimes because she was deemed unfit. A court-appointed guardian has been making decisions that keep her incarcerated. It’s hard to believe such abuses exist in this day and age.
What is next for you?
I’m writing a book based on my mother’s stories about growing up during the 1930s in a Jewish orphanage in Hyde Park, Chicago. She was smart and spunky, and quick to challenge authorities when she felt they were unfair. Life in the orphanages was far from dismal. My mother had a great social life. She and her friends attended a great school system and went to summer camp. She got free passes to movies and ball games and received music and dance lessons. Still, with a father who abandoned his family and a mother who couldn’t take care of her children, she did have challenges to overcome.
Roll Back the World
Tell me about your book
When Rachel died in 2003, I was left with a mission and mystery. I felt a pressing urge to open up and let the public know about my older sister, a budding poet who lost so much of her life to schizophrenia. I needed to get past all the stigma and shame I felt and share the story about Rachel, our family, and me. I had to get past my survivor’s guilt.
What I knew was this. Instead of going to college, Rachel decided to go to Israel for a year. She worked on a kibbutz, a farm, where she planted and harvested crops. She spent her free time hiking through the country. She was beautiful when she returned. Muscular. Bronzed. A budding poet. Three years later, she was committed to a state psychiatric hospital with a diagnosis of schizophrenia. The medication she received seemed to do more harm than good. For the next thirty years, she was in and out of various hospitals, far from home. Finally, a case worker saw her poetry and saw past her disabilities. Against all odds, he got her into an outpatient home, and she lived the last years of her life in a home of her own. But there was so much I didn’t know that I continued to investigate. What else happened to Rachel and why? What factors led to her mental illness, and why did it get so bad? The answers I found are in the book.
The best career growth can come out of career setback(Opens in a new browser tab)
Where can people buy the book?
You can pre-order Roll Back the World: A Sister’s Memoir wherever books are sold. Order online or at your local bookstore. You can find the links on my website: http://www.deborahkasdan.com
Discussion about this post